Rudger Goodwin's Trip Down Memory Lane
by Lara0XM
Summary: Before his duel with Yusei Fudo, Rudger Goodwin thinks back to the first time he met Kaida, and from there, the events and decisions that changed his life and the lives of the ones he loved.


Rudger Goodwin's Trip Down Memory Lane

In the old Momentum's facility in Satellite, Rudger Goodwin's thoughts turned back to his decision to become a Dark Signer and the consequences of that decision. The resulting Zero Reverse Incident had claimed many lives, but the most painful was the death of Kaida, Rudger's wife, and Dr. Ryuu Fudo's sister.

The first time Rudger met Kaida, he was overwhelmed by her energy and continuous optimism. Even when she was serious, her blue-green eyes, identical to her brother's, always sparkled with joy and laughter. Ryuu's eyes as well sparkled, but the smiled didn't reach his mouth as often as Kaida's did. Rudger's thoughts of Kaida almost always brought a desire to kill himself so he could tell her sorry before he descended. Whenever the thoughts of suicide drifted across his mind, a surge of strength made him keep going. The strength stemmed from the desire to protect his daughter, Darren. Since becoming a Dark Signer, Rudger found he could shield his daughter from the minds of the Earthbound Immortals.

Like their parents, Yusei and Darren had inherited the same, unexplained mystical powers. Yusei, true to his father's hope, connected people through bonds while Darren inherited the strength and diplomatic skills needed to protect the bonds. Her ability to make duel cards real allow her to fight against the people who try to break the bonds by force along with being able to hear the minds of the people around her allows her to thwart any attempt on her loved ones before the plans come into action. If the Earthbound Immortals learned of Darren's ability to hear minds, they would use it against her faster than water falls. They would kill her by suffocating her mind with their own. Only one Earthbound Immortal would be sufficient.

Rudger killed his wife so he wasn't about to let anything, including himself, touch his daughter. So long as Rex kept his promise to look after her, Rudger knew he didn't have to worry about anything other than the Earthbound Immortals.

With all the thoughts of Kaida and Darren, Rudger took a trip down memory lane.

He and Rex had just been promoted to work in the M.I.D.S as Dr. Ryuu Fudo's head assistants. Kaida and Ryuu had been discussing something about the Momentum's development when Rudger and Rex waked in, "Excuse me," Rudger had started to introduce himself and Rex only to fall silent at the side of the twins, and most especially Kaida. Kaida and Ryuu had identical appearances except for their genders and hair lengths; Kaida's was long, reaching her mid back wile Ryuu's only reached his jaw,

"You must be Rudger and Rex Goodwin," Ryuu introduced himself in calm, professional tones, "I'm Dr. Ryuu Fudo, and this is my sister, Kaida,"

"Nice to meet you," a brilliant, heart felt smile illuminated her features. Before he knew it, Rudger was dazzled.

As the project went on, a lot was revealed about the two Fudos. Kaida and Ryuu were more than just siblings; they were soul mates without the romance. Also, both of them were avid duelists with the skills needed for the dueling Pro Leagues; however they had chosen technology as their careers. Unlike her brother who solely worked for Kaiba Corporation, Kaida also worked for Industrial Illusions as apart time duel card designer. At the moment, was all out of ideas. In fact, Kaida's entire deck had been designed by herself and there were only one copy of each card in the entire world. Despite her best efforts to sell the cards, they kept coming back as if they couldn't bear to leave her. Eventually she gave up trying to sell them and accepted them as her own. Kaida was exposed to be a psychic duelist when the notes on the development of the Momentum for a presentation at the Kaiba Corporation had been mixed up with the financial documents. There had been no time for anyone to get the proper documents in time. Kaida, who always had her duel deck on her for such occasions, summoned Onyx Hawk, the fastest of her monster cards. "I'm a psychic duelist," she had shrugged at Rex and Rudger's astonished, questioning expression.

As time went on again, Rudger and Kaida had become best friends first, than lovers, and finally a married couple. Ryuu as well had married the year before Kaida and Rudger's wedding. Ryuu and Sara were already expecting their first child a year after Rudger's wedding. Naturally, Kaida was ecstatic at the thought of being an aunt but a part of her happiness was the fact she had been the one to pair Ryuu and Sara together.

The day Ryuu's son, named Yusei for the Planetary Particle (Yuusei Ryuushi) he had discovered early in his Momentum research. That same day, Kaida had become pregnant with her and Rudger's child. Of course, as Kaida's brother and best friend, Ryuu had been the first to notice it, but kept it to himself as it was Rudger's and Kaida's good news to share. For Rudger, that had been the second best moment of his life: he was going to be a father!

Nine months later to the day, Kaida gave birth to a baby girl. During those nine months, Kaida had only suffered from slight fatigue and minor swelling of the feet. Also, Kaida designed her best and last cards, the Earth Star series. The Earth Star Series consists of three cards, arranged into minor and major cards. The two minor cards are level eight Accel Synchro (unknown at the time), and named Earth Star Dragon and Earth Star Phoenix. The major card is Earth Star Wyvern, the ultimate Synchro monster as it uses two Accel Synchro monsters for its summoning. The designs of the three cards had come to Kaida in a dream, the night her daughter had been conceived, "I just saw these cards, crystal clear," Kaida gestured at the completed drawings, " being used by a girl. I couldn't see her clearly, as if she was hiding," Kaida had told Rudger. Rudger had the sneaking suspicion that the girl using their cards would be their child eve n though at the time, he hadn't known about Kaida's pregnancy.

Just three months after his daughter's birth, natural disasters started occurring with a higher frequency than normal around and in Domino City. At Ryuu's request, Rudger had gone to Nasca, Peru where similar disasters were starting up as well. There, Rudger clearly remembered how his life was shattered. Blindly listening to the stranger from Yliaster, Rudger had allowed an Earthbound Immortal to possess him. Already a Signer, Rudger vividly remembered having to make the decision of choosing the Crimson Dragon's side or the Earthbound Immortals' side. Choosing to toss the outcome of the world old war, he chose to become a Dark Signer.

After stealing the four Signer dragons, he had proceeded on to inform Ryuu of his replacement. He shot Ryuu, who had just managed to steal back three of the four dragons and entrusted them to Rex. With Ancient Fairy Dragon in his grasp, Rudger had overridden the Momentum's system, killing himself, Kaida, Sara, Ryuu and thousands of other people. Blinding white light, followed abruptly by darkness, back to diluted light was all Rudger remembered of his transformation. Wandering through the ruins, Rudger found the bodies of Kaida and Ryuu by the escape pod. From the bodies, and the absence of the pod, Rudger could safely assume his daughter and nephew were alive, and hopefully, safe. Also, Kaida didn't have her deck on her. The package that held them was gone, presumably with Darren.

Uru's attempt to wipe out what remained of Rudger's humanity entirely, ended in failure when the new Dark Signer recalled the best moment of his life: holding his daughter for the firs time and naming her. The strength of the memory acted as a shield between Rudger's consciousness and the Earthbound Immortal.

Already, white fuzz covered the infant's head, promising fair colored hair to contrast with and match bronze colored skin. Already the skin color of his first child matched his own and the promised fair colored hair would be the same light silvery-gold hair Rudger had. When the infant opened her eyes, the blue-green shade identical to Kaida's and by extension Ryuu's eyes. These eyes that had opened for the first time were alight with knowledge and comprehension beyond an hour old baby, shocked Rudger into disbelief. Her face scrunched up to start crying just as Rudger's surge of devotion, love softened his face, and a protective aura enshrouded him. The storm that had been threatening faded away as the change in her father's incomprehensible thoughts reached the baby, and the same affection that mirrored her father's lit up the infant. Rudger glanced up at the tired, but unfailingly happy Kaida, "She can hear the thoughts of those around her," she nodded her head in the direction of their daughter, "what should her name be?"

"Darren," Rudger answered without thought,

"But it's a boy's name," Kaida argued,

"Yes, but it means 'great' and that is what this baby is going to be,"

Pausing, "It does suit her" Kaida acquiesced. Naming his daughter 'Great' seemed to fulfill something, much like his becoming a Dark Signer.

Standing up, he headed to the meeting hall for the Dark Signers to wait for Yusei Fudo to show up. It seemed fitting, that he and Ryuu Fudo's son would duel here, in the Old Momentum where Ryuu met his end. To Rudger's surprise and fear, Rex appeared before Yusei with the request to a duel.


End file.
